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The NFL lockout has made some strange pairings in local gyms. (Published Tuesday, March 29, 2011)

Next time you go to your local gym, be on the lookout for Miami Dolphins. With the NFL's ongoing lockout nearly a month old, football players who might have otherwise worked out at team facilities during the offseason have found new workout spots, including an LA Fitness in Plantation.

A number of Dolphins, including WRs Davone Bess and Roberto Wallace, have been using the gym franchise to hold unofficial workouts with their teammates, the Miami Herald reported.

A Herald reporter shot video of one of these public workouts and posted it to YouTube (see below). "If you stay ready you ain't gotta get ready," Bess said at a workout.

Springtime is usually when NFL players are getting geared up for Organized Team Activities (OTAs), the offseason workouts and minicamps where players work out with their team and new acquisitions get up to speed on their team's schemes and systems. Public workouts are not quite as structured as OTAs, but they do give players a chance to stay in game shape during the labor dispute.

However, running unofficial workouts carries its own risk. The Sun-Sentinel spoke to superagent Drew Rosenhaus, who noted that players injured in unofficial workouts during the lockout could be released by their teams. "It's not a sanctioned activity," he told the Sentinel, "so if a guy goes out there and blows his knee, the team can say they've decided not to pay your contract this year. It's very risky."

For that reason, Rosenhaus and other agents advise their clients to work out at professional facilities where they have access to trainers and medical staff. The Herald reported that Brandon Marshall, for instance, has been working out at Fit Speed Sports Performance in Fort Lauderdale.

Regardless, this phenomenon of pro football players hitting the same gym as us regular people does give locals an extra incentive to wipe down the bench after finishing some presses. You would hate to inadvertently give Jake Long ringworm.

David Hill is a Miami native who used to be able to name every quarterback who has started for the Dolphins since Dan Marino retired. He has since lost count.